Giorgia Quadrato
@giorgiaquadrato.bsky.social
Developmental neurobiologist and human organoids aficionado. Associate Prof. @USCStemCell. Director @USC CIRM ASCEND Shared Resource Lab. Mama^2. Immigrant 🇮🇹.
https://quadratolab.usc.edu/
https://ascend.usc.edu/
https://quadratolab.usc.edu/
https://ascend.usc.edu/
Pinned
Generation and long-term culture of human cerebellar organoids from pluripotent stem cells
Nature Protocols - Generation and long-term culture of a human pluripotent stem cell-derived human cerebellar organoid model, which successfully replicates the cellular diversity of the fetal...
rdcu.be
We're excited to share our comprehensive protocol for generating human cerebellar #organoids, addressing the many requests we've received from the scientific community! Congratulations to Alex Atamian, @marcellabirtele.bsky.social, and Negar Hosseini! rdcu.be/d13Zu @natureportfolio.bsky.social
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Delighted to share that our study is now out @cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce... Congrats to Dr. @federicamosti.bsky.social for the culmination of a beautiful thesis!
March 19, 2026 at 9:15 PM
Delighted to share that our study is now out @cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce... Congrats to Dr. @federicamosti.bsky.social for the culmination of a beautiful thesis!
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
New postdoctoral opportunity @lieberinstitute.bsky.social working w/ @tsawada1.bsky.social and our Molecular Neurogenetics team using human induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate molecular, cellular and neuroendocrine mechanisms by which impaired placental function impacts brain development
February 20, 2026 at 2:50 AM
New postdoctoral opportunity @lieberinstitute.bsky.social working w/ @tsawada1.bsky.social and our Molecular Neurogenetics team using human induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate molecular, cellular and neuroendocrine mechanisms by which impaired placental function impacts brain development
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Congrats to the 2025 elected members of the Society for Developmental Biology Academy! William J. Anderson, Kara L. Cerveny, Judith S. Eisen, Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, Andrew P. McMahon, Michael O'Connor, Thomas Schilling, Nancy B. Schwartz, Karen E. Sears & David R. Sherwood
bit.ly/4bUl72y
bit.ly/4bUl72y
February 13, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Congrats to the 2025 elected members of the Society for Developmental Biology Academy! William J. Anderson, Kara L. Cerveny, Judith S. Eisen, Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, Andrew P. McMahon, Michael O'Connor, Thomas Schilling, Nancy B. Schwartz, Karen E. Sears & David R. Sherwood
bit.ly/4bUl72y
bit.ly/4bUl72y
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
I've started my own lab 🎉
PhD/postdoc positions available - reach out if curious about cerebellum evo-devo and autism spectrum disorders.
We’re based at Uni Tartu, Institute of Genomics (home to Estonian Biobank), and funded by @simonsfoundation.org @embo.org, and the Estonian Research Council.
PhD/postdoc positions available - reach out if curious about cerebellum evo-devo and autism spectrum disorders.
We’re based at Uni Tartu, Institute of Genomics (home to Estonian Biobank), and funded by @simonsfoundation.org @embo.org, and the Estonian Research Council.
January 29, 2026 at 8:33 PM
I've started my own lab 🎉
PhD/postdoc positions available - reach out if curious about cerebellum evo-devo and autism spectrum disorders.
We’re based at Uni Tartu, Institute of Genomics (home to Estonian Biobank), and funded by @simonsfoundation.org @embo.org, and the Estonian Research Council.
PhD/postdoc positions available - reach out if curious about cerebellum evo-devo and autism spectrum disorders.
We’re based at Uni Tartu, Institute of Genomics (home to Estonian Biobank), and funded by @simonsfoundation.org @embo.org, and the Estonian Research Council.
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
White beaked dolphins breach beside our boat in the North Atlantic as snowcapped peaks of Arctic fjords rise into clouds.
October 24, 2025 at 7:49 AM
White beaked dolphins breach beside our boat in the North Atlantic as snowcapped peaks of Arctic fjords rise into clouds.
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Neuron programming! Pro-neural TFs + 480 morphogen conditions + scRNA-seq --> Diverse iN subtypes of forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, spinal cord, and PNS. @hsiuchuanlin.bsky.social @jasperjanssens.bsky.social and Treutlein Lab! @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #NGN2 #ASCL1
July 11, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Neuron programming! Pro-neural TFs + 480 morphogen conditions + scRNA-seq --> Diverse iN subtypes of forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, spinal cord, and PNS. @hsiuchuanlin.bsky.social @jasperjanssens.bsky.social and Treutlein Lab! @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #NGN2 #ASCL1
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
We've launched the Armamentarium, a new toolkit for targeted gene delivery to the brain and spinal cord.
This #OpenScience resource was made possible thanks to support from the NIH BRAIN Initiative and teamwork with our collaborators.
🧠📈 www.nih.gov/news-events/...
This #OpenScience resource was made possible thanks to support from the NIH BRAIN Initiative and teamwork with our collaborators.
🧠📈 www.nih.gov/news-events/...
Scientists design gene delivery systems for cells in the brain and spinal cord
NIH-funded breakthrough could enable targeted therapies for many neurological disorders.
www.nih.gov
May 21, 2025 at 6:25 PM
We've launched the Armamentarium, a new toolkit for targeted gene delivery to the brain and spinal cord.
This #OpenScience resource was made possible thanks to support from the NIH BRAIN Initiative and teamwork with our collaborators.
🧠📈 www.nih.gov/news-events/...
This #OpenScience resource was made possible thanks to support from the NIH BRAIN Initiative and teamwork with our collaborators.
🧠📈 www.nih.gov/news-events/...
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Here is an article about how NIH cuts are impacting research on rare genetic disorders like autism. hub.jhu.edu/2025/05/14/r...
NIH cuts stalling progress on rare genetic disorders like SynGap1
Hopkins neuroscientist Richard Huganir is close to finding a potential life-changing treatment for kids with SYNGAP1-related disorders, but cuts to federal funding could delay or halt the progress
hub.jhu.edu
May 14, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Here is an article about how NIH cuts are impacting research on rare genetic disorders like autism. hub.jhu.edu/2025/05/14/r...
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Thrilled to share our latest study out in @natureportfolio.nature.com led by the fantastically talented Jing Liu. Our study provides insight into a long standing question in biology: What molecular features make us uniquely human and how do these function? www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A human-specific enhancer fine-tunes radial glia potency and corticogenesis - Nature
HARE5, a human accelerated region enhancer, modulates cortical development by influencing neural progenitor cell behaviour, leading to an enlarged neocortex with increased functional independence betw...
www.nature.com
May 14, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Thrilled to share our latest study out in @natureportfolio.nature.com led by the fantastically talented Jing Liu. Our study provides insight into a long standing question in biology: What molecular features make us uniquely human and how do these function? www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Big congrats to our longtime collaborators in the Stefan Pfister and @lenakutscher.bsky.social labs — large-scale chromosomal changes as early tumour-initiating events in Group 3/4 medulloblastoma!
new out in Nature www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Oncogene aberrations drive medulloblastoma progression, not initiation - Nature
A large-scale multi-omics analysis reports oncogenic alterations that drive medulloblastoma progression, rather than initiation, and the findings show how single-cell technologies can be used for...
www.nature.com
May 7, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Big congrats to our longtime collaborators in the Stefan Pfister and @lenakutscher.bsky.social labs — large-scale chromosomal changes as early tumour-initiating events in Group 3/4 medulloblastoma!
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
We will put forward a 500 million package for 2025-2027 to make Europe a magnet for researchers.
As well as ambitious proposals for R&I in the next EU budget.
We will also offer the best and brightest the right incentives to come to Europe ↓
As well as ambitious proposals for R&I in the next EU budget.
We will also offer the best and brightest the right incentives to come to Europe ↓
May 5, 2025 at 10:02 AM
We will put forward a 500 million package for 2025-2027 to make Europe a magnet for researchers.
As well as ambitious proposals for R&I in the next EU budget.
We will also offer the best and brightest the right incentives to come to Europe ↓
As well as ambitious proposals for R&I in the next EU budget.
We will also offer the best and brightest the right incentives to come to Europe ↓
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Delighted to share our new preprint, the outcome of many years of collaborative work with Giuseppe Testa’s group, both at the bench & in front of the computer, probing human brain evolution using organoids. We tried something cool, and learned a lot 🧪🧫🧠🧬
[follow 🧵]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
[follow 🧵]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Regulatory logic of human cortex evolution by combinatorial perturbations
Comparative genomic studies between contemporary and extinct hominins revealed key evolutionary modifications, but their number has hampered a system level investigation of their combined roles in sca...
www.biorxiv.org
May 2, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Delighted to share our new preprint, the outcome of many years of collaborative work with Giuseppe Testa’s group, both at the bench & in front of the computer, probing human brain evolution using organoids. We tried something cool, and learned a lot 🧪🧫🧠🧬
[follow 🧵]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
[follow 🧵]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Given all that is going on consider this quote from Bertram Russell's 1930 book The conquest of Happiness:
“The man who can be interested in the structure of atoms or the way in which a beetle navigates, is likely to get a joy in life which no amount of success in the pursuit of power can give. ”
“The man who can be interested in the structure of atoms or the way in which a beetle navigates, is likely to get a joy in life which no amount of success in the pursuit of power can give. ”
May 3, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Given all that is going on consider this quote from Bertram Russell's 1930 book The conquest of Happiness:
“The man who can be interested in the structure of atoms or the way in which a beetle navigates, is likely to get a joy in life which no amount of success in the pursuit of power can give. ”
“The man who can be interested in the structure of atoms or the way in which a beetle navigates, is likely to get a joy in life which no amount of success in the pursuit of power can give. ”
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
It was fun to learn about blood vessel organoids together with @marinanikolova.bsky.social and Barbara Treutlein! Thanks to Reiner Wimmer and @penningerlab.bsky.social for introducing us to this system! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... Great support from editors and reviewers @cellpress.bsky.social!
April 28, 2025 at 2:33 PM
It was fun to learn about blood vessel organoids together with @marinanikolova.bsky.social and Barbara Treutlein! Thanks to Reiner Wimmer and @penningerlab.bsky.social for introducing us to this system! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... Great support from editors and reviewers @cellpress.bsky.social!
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Human cortical pyramidal neurons are larger, with more elaborate branching, and distinct nonlinear biophysical properties compared to rat cortical pyramidal neurons.
Are they more functionally complex? Could that boost the human brain’s computational power? and is that what makes us human? (1/11)
Are they more functionally complex? Could that boost the human brain’s computational power? and is that what makes us human? (1/11)
December 26, 2024 at 5:31 PM
Human cortical pyramidal neurons are larger, with more elaborate branching, and distinct nonlinear biophysical properties compared to rat cortical pyramidal neurons.
Are they more functionally complex? Could that boost the human brain’s computational power? and is that what makes us human? (1/11)
Are they more functionally complex? Could that boost the human brain’s computational power? and is that what makes us human? (1/11)
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Sakura season in full bloom 🌸🌸🌸 #naturephotography #spring #blossom #nature #photo #bluesky #Nikon #PNW #Washingtonstate #photography #Sakura #cherryblossom #pink #vancouverwashington #vancouverusa #clarkcollege #landscape #landscapephotography #travel #trees
March 28, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
CellBouncer tools were crucial for our study of dopaminergic evolution that included ventral midbrain organoids with up to 17 individuals from 4 species, led by Sara Nolbrant, @jenellewallace.bsky.social, and Jingwen Ding:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
March 24, 2025 at 10:04 PM
CellBouncer tools were crucial for our study of dopaminergic evolution that included ventral midbrain organoids with up to 17 individuals from 4 species, led by Sara Nolbrant, @jenellewallace.bsky.social, and Jingwen Ding:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Introducing CellBouncer, a unified demultiplexing toolkit built by nkschaefer.bsky.social to check IDs and keep the riff raff out of single cell genomics datasets, including by using genetic variation as an external ground-truth for ambient RNA removal:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
March 24, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Introducing CellBouncer, a unified demultiplexing toolkit built by nkschaefer.bsky.social to check IDs and keep the riff raff out of single cell genomics datasets, including by using genetic variation as an external ground-truth for ambient RNA removal:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
💫 New preprint from the lab: Comparing great ape cerebral organoids, we found that human-specific morphoregulatory signatures in basal radial glia characterise neocortex evolution. Fantastic work from super-talented PhD student Theresa Schütze!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
March 13, 2025 at 10:11 AM
💫 New preprint from the lab: Comparing great ape cerebral organoids, we found that human-specific morphoregulatory signatures in basal radial glia characterise neocortex evolution. Fantastic work from super-talented PhD student Theresa Schütze!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
How does gene regulation shape brain evolution? Our new preprint dives into this question in the context of mammalian cerebellum development! rb.gy/dbcxjz
Led by @ioansarr.bsky.social, @marisepp.bsky.social and @tyamadat.bsky.social, in collaboration with @steinaerts.bsky.social
Led by @ioansarr.bsky.social, @marisepp.bsky.social and @tyamadat.bsky.social, in collaboration with @steinaerts.bsky.social
March 16, 2025 at 10:31 AM
How does gene regulation shape brain evolution? Our new preprint dives into this question in the context of mammalian cerebellum development! rb.gy/dbcxjz
Led by @ioansarr.bsky.social, @marisepp.bsky.social and @tyamadat.bsky.social, in collaboration with @steinaerts.bsky.social
Led by @ioansarr.bsky.social, @marisepp.bsky.social and @tyamadat.bsky.social, in collaboration with @steinaerts.bsky.social
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
NIH “is expected to cut between 3,400 and 5,000 positions from its workforce of 20,000 in coming days.” Story by @statnews.com www.statnews.com/2025/03/14/n...
At NIH, ‘everyone is on edge’ as they brace for deep cuts and more centralized control
As the NIH braces for cuts of up to 5,000 of its 20,000 positions, “people are scrambling and freaking out,” a researcher said.
www.statnews.com
March 15, 2025 at 5:00 PM
NIH “is expected to cut between 3,400 and 5,000 positions from its workforce of 20,000 in coming days.” Story by @statnews.com www.statnews.com/2025/03/14/n...
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
A metric that reflects reality and the @bluesky platform as the preferred one to transmit science publications with collegial communication
Mike spotted this before the rest of us. 🫡
Publications from 2025 are shared more on Bluesky than on X/Twitter.
Publications from 2025 are shared more on Bluesky than on X/Twitter.
About to talk to medical affairs colleagues, with the news that Bluesky is carrying more posts about new journal publications than X #bluesky #altmetrics #x #xparrot
March 13, 2025 at 11:05 PM
A metric that reflects reality and the @bluesky platform as the preferred one to transmit science publications with collegial communication
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
Our collaborative project with Matthias Stadtfeld and Jason Mezey labs has now been published. We examined how genetic variation impacts regulation of DNA methylation at the control regions of imprinted genes in naive pluripotent stem cells.
www.cell.com/stem-cell-re...
www.cell.com/stem-cell-re...
Genetic variation modulates susceptibility to aberrant DNA hypomethylation and imprint deregulation in naive pluripotent stem cells
Pluripotent stem cells are susceptible to acquiring detrimental epigenetic abnormalities, posing a hurdle to their safe use in biomedical applications. Using pluripotent cells with defined genetic backgrounds, Stadtfeld and colleagues show that genetic variation is a major driver of epigenome stability and identify candidate regulators. These findings will enable novel approaches to stabilize the epigenome of pluripotent cells in culture.
www.cell.com
March 13, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Our collaborative project with Matthias Stadtfeld and Jason Mezey labs has now been published. We examined how genetic variation impacts regulation of DNA methylation at the control regions of imprinted genes in naive pluripotent stem cells.
www.cell.com/stem-cell-re...
www.cell.com/stem-cell-re...
Reposted by Giorgia Quadrato
There has never in the history of humanity been a better investment than universities and their affiliated research.
March 12, 2025 at 11:24 PM
There has never in the history of humanity been a better investment than universities and their affiliated research.